Prompt — Ascendance and Ignorance

Cha’arnassi stepped into the room to a sea of life forms. ‘Humans’, they were called. Over two hundred of them sitting in this meeting, and one by one, each turned their head to face her as the rustling and murmurs grew louder about the hall. Their faces contorted into expressions she couldn’t understand. Many grew audible at the sight of her, but several others sat there in an unreadable silence. It was difficult to make out without being familiar with this species. She never quite got the hang of body language on races that didn’t have antennae, but it was of little concern to her.

What was concerning, was the lack of any predominant leader of the bunch. Surely there was a head figure amongst this planet-scale operation. This matter wasn’t something delegated to a committee. Her intel must be incorrect. Which meant there was no helping it.

“Rapid resource collection is forbidden by Word 4211 by the Ascendant himself,” she began, curving her mandibles to amplify her voice. “By order of the Ascendant Federation you will cease your reckless actions on this planet immediately and return to your nearest habitable colony. Failure to comply will result in swift military action.” The automatic translator worked well, but the language sounded strange to her. Too many soft sounds, especially for such a hostile species.

The room made no reply. She could feel the life force buzzing all about the seats and tables, but there was no one they answered to. Something was very wrong here.

Normally, she would take off the exosuit to get a physical look, but the air on this planet was toxic, and she could suffocate within minutes. It wasn’t an issue, of course. The suit was formfitting and cloaked by default. She didn’t look as though she was wearing anything aside from the Federation’s uniform.

The door opened behind her, and a loud pop followed it. She turned to address it. A new human facing her, extending both of its arms. Where they connected, it seemed to be holding some sort of black tubed device.

She ran the diagnostics. Attempted breach, no signs of damage. Returning her focus to the man, he used the device again. And again, and again.

Cha’arnassi was perplexed. This device was a weapon? Propulsion by combustion, it seemed. It was so archaic. If this was an attack it was a poor one. Surely they knew it would require more force to pierce her suit.

Addressing the rest of the assembly, it dawned on her. Many of these humans were cowering in fear. The mess of items and objects around weren’t from this race’s fondness for tools, or at least, not entirely.

This must be a sub-galactic species.

But that didn’t make sense. Plundering the resources of one’s own home planet? There was so much technology this race already used, largely focused on this planet. Maybe it wasn’t simply a harvesting operation. Maybe they simply had no interest in advancing as a species. Surely such cases have been cataloged in the Federation’s databases. When she returned home to Kla’tak, she would look into it.

But that changed the current matters drastically. No sub-galactic species were allowed to be contacted by the Federation under any circumstances. She had just broken Word 0018 of the Ascendant by revealing the existence of other life forms to these humans. She could hardly be blamed, though. She was operating under orders. But her superiors would have to handle this, once she reported the situation.

The main assembly had seemed to lose its sense of panic. They had stopped using their barbaric weapons, and instead resorted to flashing bright lights from many angles at her. She wondered what would be going through their ignorant minds as she called in the phase shift and disintegrated on the spot without another word.

Prompt: Alien explorers come across Earth, see what humans are doing with our oil rigs, mines, and power plants and think we are an alien scavenger race that came here to strip earth of its resources.

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2 thoughts on “Prompt — Ascendance and Ignorance”

Ha this is neat. If you used a word different than “Ascendant” in the title, you could make the “Ignorance” work multiple angles! Perhaps like, “Ascendance and Ignorance” or something – something to hint that both words apply to both parties.

It’s weird that this is kind of a cool intro to literally any “first contact” sort of story, haha.

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A Daily Dose of Derailment

Hey, my name is Kollin Cooley. Writer, improv actor and teacher, and college student living in Southern California.

If you’ve come in search of an interesting blog where you learn valuable things, I’m afraid you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere. I’m impressed, considering you’re on the internet where there are no turns.

But now that you’re here, you may as well stay awhile and be disappointed with what you’ve found.

At least the only substantial amount of alliteration is in the title, so you won’t have to worry about that.

Note: all short stories here are first drafts. If I have edited them, I won’t have updated the post beyond typos.